Choosing Your Hunting Ground

When you're deciding what bug bounty programs you'd like to participate in, it's nice to have a baseline of information about your options – an offering company's report-submission process, submission success rate, the attack surface of the sites in question, and more. Luckily, that information is typically easy to find based on the type of company, its size, the nature of its reward program (third-party marketplace, in-house), and its public statements and documentation.

This chapter will cover how to evaluate marketplaces, programs, and companies and gauge their promise as productive engagements. It will also cover how to zero-in on the areas of web applications where you're most likely to find bugs. At the end of it, you'll know what programs to participate in, why, and how you can make the most of your target application – all while ensuring you color within the lines of your agreed-upon rules of engagement.